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Home >> Forum >> Crew planning when starting new routes Civil aviation forum
Crew planning when starting new routes
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Message of Mrtnw - Sent 07 Feb 17:35 |
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Take the example of CX starting a new route to MXP.
How is the crew planning for the first two return flights?
Normally CX crew stays two nights in Europe, which would mean there need to be 2 full crews in Europe before the first flight commences
Will they do a test flight before the first official flight and take 2 crews on board? Or will they fly the crews in via f.i. LHR?
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Message of captain bill - Sent 08 Feb 9:53 |
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As you say Mrtnw if it were a daily rotation two full cabin crews (IFA) and flight deck crews along with whatever reserves they require for the flight deck would be positioned to the destination a few days before the first flight. One major British airline of my past acquaintance would also employ IFAs from the the destination city as a local or two within the crew can help with cultural problems that can arise during the flight. This also helps to keep accommodation costs down as on many occasions at overseas stop over points this can be very costly.
On the other hand overseas airlines flying into LHR find that hotel accommodation can be very expensive. I used to stay regularly at a top LHR 5 star hotel and this was back in the 1980s and 90s. The standard B & B rate at that time was about £90.00 but as we were members of IATA we got a discount and it only cost the company £25.00 or so. I am not so certain if the IATA number still applies so I think that each individual airline has to do it's own deal with the hotel chain.
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Message of FLX - Sent 08 Feb 10:59 |
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Mrtnw:
I imagine the 5 key words here are<between two flights they operate> that are missing in your statement <Normally CX crew stays two nights in Europe>.
These CX crew most likely arrive on-station @ MXP purely as pax on a diff airline. So technically speaking, it's possible for these crew to hv sufficient crew rest time before operating their MXP->HKG(The initial 2 CX flights) even if they hv arrived MXP no more than 12hrs prior(Or just a few hrs). In other words, the <normal> 2nites rule may not apply in such case.
As for 2 full crews in MXP prior to the initial MXP->HKG, check CX's press release again and U'll see its HKG-MXP is not a daily rotation.
Pure test flight prior to inaugural Rev$ flight(I think the actual term is route-proving or something like that) is extremely rare these days due to:
1. Prohibitively expensive to fly brand new widebodies(CX will deploy new 77Ws for HKG-MXP) with empty cabin/belly cargo on a roundtrip lasting 12+hrs per way......we're not talking about FR test flying(If FR does such a thing at all) a new destination 2hrs fm Dublin on a 738.
2. The most advanced FlightSim eliminated such need especially when combined with observation fm cockpit jumpseat as guests on another airline already flying to/fm the destination airport...remember, we're talking about experienced 777 crew here, not rookies.
3. Cultural familiarization will be non-issue as CX launched Rome(Unless we define Rome and Milan having diff cultures in terms of aviation) since 86 and has been doing daily for yrs.
4. Local ATC familiarization will be non-issue as CX has been flying freighters HKG-MXP 6X wkly.
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